We took everything out of the car in preparation to look at the head gasket which the consensus appears to be the problem. Jim went into town to see whether he could find a compression tester but no luck there.
Four of the others went into town to see the Afghan Consul so that they could get visas to walk across the bridge into the Afghan village on the other side.
At 11.30 five of us walked to the Tajikistan checkpost, then walked across to the Afghan side. Whilst we were getting passports & visas checked, the Commissioner of Police introduced himself. He was seeing off a brother who was returning to Canada. He then arranged for a driver to squeeze the 5 of us into a Toyota and drive us up to the village. It was much further than we expected. Once there we were taken to an eating house, shoes off at the door & sitting on carpets on the floor. We were then given a mutton stew, bread & tea. After a while, a musical instrument was brought in & a jolly tune was played for our amusement. One chap had on a glittering Boss black jacket. No women in sight.
As we arrived schoolgirls walked by, dressed all in black with white headscarves. They quickly hurried away.
After lunch we said goodbye to the hosts & wandered down to the bazaar.
First stall was sides of meat handing in the air with wasps buzzing all around. All the little shops were looked after by men. Again no women in sight so we must have looked very strange. I don’t think many tourists take this path judging by the passport control ledger.
Back to the hotel to see how car repairs were going. Head gasket replaced and worked late into the night welded & plate patched the chassis on both sides under the firewall.
Chassis was torn 80% of depth.
Welder did not turn up as promised, so I offered $50 USD, next minute, mobile phones on the job and 30 mins later, a car turned up with a welder and his equipment and a couple of mates / helpers. Did a very competent job, despite welding equip running on two bare wires poked into a double adapter. All this done in open air beside hotel, under a large beach umbrella. However, did not find evidence of head gasket failure when dismantled.
Welder did not turn up as promised, so I offered $50 USD, next minute, mobile phones on the job and 30 mins later, a car turned up with a welder and his equipment and a couple of mates / helpers. Did a very competent job, despite welding equip running on two bare wires poked into a double adapter. All this done in open air beside hotel, under a large beach umbrella. However, did not find evidence of head gasket failure when dismantled.
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